Zuma crisis: Police raid Gupta family house

The South African police on Wednesday raided the house of an influential business family suspected of using its ties to President Jacob Zuma to influence Cabinet appointments and land state contracts

Customers watch a telecast in a bar in Randburg, Johannesburg, on February 14, 2018, as South African president Jacob Zuma makes a live address to the nation on the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) network from The Union Buildings in Pretoria. South African President Jacob Zuma announced his immediate resignation in a television address to the nation on February 14, 2018, after the ruling ANC party threatened to eject him from office via a parliamentary vote of no confidence. Pic/AFP

The South African police on Wednesday raided the house of an influential business family suspected of using its ties to President Jacob Zuma to influence Cabinet appointments and land state contracts. According to media reports, the Hawks entered the Gupta compound in Saxondale, Johannesburg, on Wednesday. The police described the area as a "crime scene".

Three people from the wealthy, Indian-born family were arrested earlier in the day, the local media reported. The police also raided the Guptas' Oakbay holding company in Johannesburg's Sandton financial district, according to the local sources. It is expected that five to seven more people will be arrested as part of raids in connection with the Estina Dairy Farm project. The project established a dairy farm in Vrede¿ in partnership with the Gupta-linked company Estina.

It was also adopted by the provincial government without a tender. The local media reported that the project was allegedly a looting ground for Gupta family and their associates. However, the lawyer for the Gupta family refused to comment on the raid because he had yet to see the search warrant. Meanwhile, South Africa's Parliament will hold a motion of no-confidence against President Jacob Zuma on Thursday, as the country's embattled leader defied demands to step down. "We have now asked the chief whip to proceed with the motion of no confidence tomorrow in parliament... so that President Zuma is then removed," Country's ruling African National Congress (ANC) treasurer-general Paul Mashatile had said.

ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu underscored that the party would back an opposition move to censure Zuma in the Parliament in Cape Town on Thursday and hoped a new President could be sworn-in on the same day, reported CNN. It is highly likely that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa will replace 75-year-old Zuma. Earlier in the day, Zuma, in an unannounced live TV interview, called the efforts to oust him "very unfair".

"Nobody has ever provided the reasons. Nobody is saying what I have done," he said. The scandal-hit South African leader, who faces more than 780 allegations of corruption relating to a 1990s arms deal, was formally asked to step down on Tuesday.

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